Wrecked Barges Still Disrupt River Traffic

Salvage crews made little progress in their attempts to remove the wreckage of three barges and restore traffic on a 42-mile section of the Ohio River near Reedsville.

Crews managed to hook onto one of the barges and “wiggle it around like a loose tooth,” but couldn’t remove it, said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Chuck Minsker.

The barges were among nine loaded coal barges that broke loose Jan. 6 during flooding along the river. The force of the water twisted three of the 175-foot-long steel barges into horseshoe shapes around a dam’s gate piers and sank a fourth.